


Cyvus Vail to the Rescue

by Fitzsimmons_Forever



Category: Angel: the Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: s05e22 Not Fade Away, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-17
Updated: 2018-07-17
Packaged: 2019-06-11 21:46:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15325047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fitzsimmons_Forever/pseuds/Fitzsimmons_Forever
Summary: Wesley fights smarter, Illyria takes a shortcut and Vail saves the day - a happy ending for Wesley and Fred, set during the events of Not Fade Away.





	Cyvus Vail to the Rescue

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a quick fic I wrote, after I remembered the Senior Partners really didn't like Illyria, to the point where Hamilton gave Wesley hints on how to defeat her. After Wesley failed to actually kill her, I realised the Senior Partners would probably put one of their more trusted servants to the task... hence this fic. Hope you enjoy!

“I’m curious.” Vail slurped up a spoon of his dinner. I noted that I hadn’t been offered any. “What makes you think I won’t kill you where you sit?”  
I kept my face impassive. I could read Vail like an open book: all that magical power, and still he desired more control over others. To be admired and respected. I could see that it irked him that other members of the circle were held in higher regard. This made him easy to play. 

“Because you’re smarter than the others.” I left a small pause so he could absorb my statement. “Smart enough to have your doubts about Angel. And rightly so.” I kept up my facade: I’d drawn on all my despair to project this image. The darkest version of myself I could muster. A broken man, consumed by grief, driven to betrayal. I drew on my new - or rather, old but misplaced - memories of life after my throat was slashed, on the rage and despair I’d given into after Fred’s death and on my timeless, deep, bitter hatred for the Senior Partners, for Wolfram & Hart and for all of demonkind, without whom Fred would still be beside me.

“He’s… unpredictable.” Vail would of course empathise with this statement, as he’d completely failed to predict Angel’s actions when he tried to use Connor to destroy Sahjhan, and had been forced on the run as a result. I projected my most blank, unfeeling expression. “And worse: he has a conscience.” I left it implicit that I’d lost mine long ago, letting the tiniest shard of pure grief show in my eyes alongside the cool calculation Vail wanted to see. The face of a Judas.

“Hmm.” Vail smiled smugly. “You make a very persuasive argument.” Vail would of course respond well to a rational argument, especially one made by a fellow scholar of the arcane. He also recognised that if Angel joined the circle, he would primarily serve his own ends whereas if I was brought in to replace him, I would be bound to Vail to a certain extent. Without a choice but to serve him. And, of course, having another sorcerer on the Circle could only be of a benefit to him. Someone who he was absolutely confident was his lesser in every way, without a single skill I could exceed him in. 

Except, unknown to him, the art of deception.

“Wait.” And I let the smirk I wanted to have slip onto my face out as the small, smug smile of a man confident he had secured his own advantage. “It gets better.” I focused my will. I called on the power I’d strived towards desperately in these last few months where I had no purpose, no desires, nothing to focus on but honing my knowledge and training my craft. I kept my gaze fixed on Vail even as the energy I’d called forth coalesced into a ball of fire in my palm, hidden beneath the table.

Vail raised a single eyebrow, waiting to hear my most persuasive argument. I delivered it. I tossed the fireball not at him, but at his life support machine. It exploded outwards, the glass on the machine shattering as it was hurled backwards. Vail’s chair was tossed sideways against the wall with a crack, Vail himself was hurled backwards, falling onto his front facing away from me. “Your influence on this world is over.” Resisting the urge to gloat further, I calmly aimed my wrist at him and flexed, firing my wrist-mounted wooden stake. It punched into his lower back, missing his heart by the slimmest margin as he crawled away. I cursed internally and began the process of summoning another fireball, readying my wrist-mounted collapsible sword for a quick deployment. “The rest of the circle will wither and die. Like you’re about to.”

I tossed a newly formed fireball at him. Vail snarled and rolled over, raising both hands. My fireball was absorbed by one hand. Damn. He flicked the other and it was my turn to be tossed back across the room, onto the table. He was opening up distance between us, preventing me from moving to close range where he’d be vulnerable. I sprang to my feet, summoning another fireball and beginning to walk slowly towards him. I couldn’t run: if he perceived me as an immediate threat, he’d strike again and then - confident I had no more tricks up my sleeve - he would rip me to pieces. I shifted my left hand behind my back and focused, trying desperately to summon a second fireball without losing the first one. The first fireball he would block easily. I wagered the second would surprise him and throw him into the wall, at which point I would finish him with my sword. I felt sweat beginning to bead my brow: I’d never successfully summoned two fireballs at once before. I had to delay him. I stopped walking, praying he’d take the chance to monologue. I remembered him talking too much when Angel had confronted him. I hoped he’d show the same tendencies.

“You don’t know who you’re dealing with do you, boy?” He snarled. Of course he’d gloat. Demons never changed. And neither did people, for that matter. We could take a few steps towards a darkness that had been inside us all along, or see it momentarily driven back by wonderful happiness, but who we were? That never changed. Never.

I let him get to his feet, still trying to summon my second fireball. I almost had it…

Then my first fireball was torn from my hand and into his, where it vanished. “I mean, really?” He snarled. “I crap better magic than this. Now then,” He practically rubbed his clawed hands in glee. “Let me show you what a real wizard-”

Without having to focus on the first fireball, the second blossomed to fruition in less than a second and I tossed it at him mid-sentence. It exploded directly under his chin. He was hurled backwards with a surprised yelp of pain, skin burned even redder by the flames before he crunched into the wall and began to slide down it. I charged at him, extending my sword and readying myself to put it through his heart.

He thrust a hand forwards and I snapped backwards, feeling whiplash on my neck as I was hoisted into the air by an invisible force. Just perfect. I worked on summoning another fireball, wishing I’d had the time available to learn alternative combat magic so I could spruce it up a bit. Vail sneered at me, hobbling forwards. “Did you really think you had a shot? I can bend the very fabric of reality—”

Then the wall behind him exploded. Both of us were covered in dust. I spat out a mouthful and Vail choked, spinning round to face the new hole in the wall. And there she stood. The blue-eyed monster inhabiting the body of my one true love. Illyria cocked her head, as she often did while observing something interesting, and stepped into the room. 

Vail licked his lips. “The Old One.” He stumbled backwards, quickly putting me between him and Illyria. For her part, Illyria advanced slowly, a smirk playing on the face that didn’t belong to her. “At last. Someone who fears me as they should.”

Vail chuckled nervously, still backing away. “You’ve gone soft, Old One. You help these fools? You come here to save this one? You’ve walked into the home of the only being in this world who knows how to end you!” I was suddenly thrown forwards, straight at Illyria. I grimaced and closed my eyes. This was how I died. Pulverised like a baseball by the demon who’d eaten Fred’s soul. A cruel universe’s final, vicious joke at my expense.

But I was not pulverised. I crunched into the floor and skidded into the wall. I opened my eyes, groaning. Illyria had moved. She’d sidestepped. It would have been easier for her to raise her fist and let me vaporise on contact. Easier still to hit me in the opposite direction so that my carcass would cripple Vail. But she’d inconvenienced herself. To save me. Perhaps she was not beyond saving. Perhaps I hadn’t wasted these last few weeks.

“You cannot end me, warlock.” And I could hear the smirk in her voice. “You are beneath me. Do you believe the puny magic that immobilised that mortal can possibly affect me?”  
“No, no, of course not.” Vail simpered, still backing towards the table. I frowned. There was something important about this. Something we had to be careful of. “But when Wesley over there failed to kill you with his pathetic Ray Gun, the Senior Partners assigned me to find a way to end your sad, diminished existence.”  
“And how do you propose to do that? Will you say abracadabra? Pull a fire-breathing bunny out of a hat?” Had Illyria just made a joke and a pop culture reference? Damn. When had she found the time to watch Monty Python?

“I can bend the very fabric of reality!” Vail snarled, taking a step across the threshold. “Had you attacked sooner, you might have killed me, Old One. But now? You are doomed!” In an instant, the threshold between us and the room with the table turned to brick. I cursed: the same trick he’d used with Angel and Connor!  
“Illyria, break the wall!” I yelled. “We have to get to him quickly, before he undoes everything the rest of the team have done so far.”

Illyria raised an eyebrow, looking thoroughly unbothered.

“And kills us!” I finished. Illyria nodded and marched up to the wall, then punched it. The whole building cracked but the wall held. “Magically reinforced.” I advised, limping towards her. “Keep going!”  
“We will have words about your ordering of me.” Illyria spat, but kept hitting. I flattened myself against the wall… next to the wall. That is, against the real wall right next to Vail’s fake wall that had blocked the threshold between us and the table. I gripped my sword tighter and summoned another fireball. Perhaps I could distract Vail for a second or too, long enough for Illyria to crush his skull.

The wall began to crack open, and I could hear Vail chanting. Smatterings of Sumerian, pieces of various demonic languages. I didn’t understand most of it. What I did understand sounded bad. “Faster!” I hissed. Illyria growled and with one final blow, imploded the wall. 

I peered around the edge: Vail stood at the far end of the table, book in hand, chanting desperately. His eyes flicked up to face Illyria and he began to chant even faster, spittle flying from his mouth. I cursed as I saw the line of runes that had flared into life around his feet: a protective circle. Not enough to stop Illyria. Certainly enough to make him impervious to my attacks. No distraction duty for me.

Illyria pounded down the table towards him and leapt at him. Then Vail stopped chanting. A sphere of transparent energy coalesced around him and shot at Illyria, wrapping around her. She was immobilised, held mid-air. Illyria struggled helplessly against it and Vail sneered. “Now. What was that you were saying about my puny magic?” He pushed at the air and the sphere moved backwards, hovering into the middle of the room I was in. I flattened myself against the wall, praying Vail wouldn’t see me. I still had a chance to jump him.

“This was a spell of my own design.” Vail crooned, and I heard him walking heavily down towards us. Illyria kept her gaze fixed on him. I frowned: was that a bead of sweat rolling down her face?  
“As soon as we knew an Old One was hatching out of some human, I began my research into a way to exploit the weakness of your shell. And I don’t just mean the physical weakness or the limitations it puts on your powers. Your shell’s biggest weakness is that it was once a person. It yearns to be that person again.”

Fred. No. This wasn’t possible. What he was saying, it made no sense, it—

Illyria laughed. “This is your plan, Warlock? The Shell is nothing now. Her soul consumed in the fires of resurrection. Everything she was is gone.”  
Vail laughed nastily. “Do you know that Illyria? Are you experienced with it? Have you studied the exact process of demon resurrection in a human shell for weeks, as I have? Or were you just told that the soul was destroyed by your sycophantic followers, whom you were already displeased with? I doubt very much they wished to inform you that you could end up sharing your living space with a human. Now, I will rip your essence from that body and when all that you are is gone and the soul returned, I will burn away your essence into nothing and crush the body for good measure! You and the shell will be extinguished forever! THAT… is what a real wizard can do. I do not deal in parlour tricks, Old One. And allow me to extend my congratulations: you are the first real god I’ve ever had the pleasure to kill face-to-face.”

He stepped past the threshold - putting his back to me - eyes fixed upon Illyria. He wanted to watch. To enjoy the power he held over this most powerful of all beings. Of course. But what he said… it couldn’t be true. It wouldn’t work. Fred was gone, she couldn’t be coming back, she couldn’t—

Illyria screamed, thrashing helplessly within her transparent bubble. I moved my gaze between Vail and Illyria. I knew I should kill Vail now. No telling how long he would be distracted. If he noticed me now, we were both dead. And yet…

Fred. If there was the slightest chance Vail’s spell would bring her back as a by-product… a one percent chance to save her was worth a thousand times more than my life and Illyria’s combined. So I waited. And for the first time in a very, very long time, I prayed. I felt a stray breeze touch my cheek and frowned.

Illyria’s bubble was changing colour. Steadily, it was becoming stained. Blue. The blue was leeching from her hair and skin. “Right now, the majority of your essence is being drained.” Vail gloated. “Once as much as possible has been removed by this magic, the body will be re-ensouled: the soul will purge the last vestiges of you, the final remnants that my magic cannot claw out alone. You will be pushed entirely into that energy sphere, which I will burn away into nothing. Once that is done, the human will be tossed onto this floor, alone and afraid, and I will kill her. You will of course, be dead by that point. I thought you might like to know the human isn’t getting out alive either. Think of it as a courtesy.”

Thank the Powers for bragging villains. Assuming he hadn’t lied - which I had to hope he hadn’t - I just had to wait until he destroyed the energy sphere. Then I could destroy him… and Fred… Fred would be alive again. Please, please, let her be alive again.

Illyria let out a final anguished wail. All the blue had drained from her hair and skin. The hair was Fred’s chocolate brown again, the skin her perfect and unblemished tone. The lips had returned form the alien blue of Illyria to the blushed, perfect pink of Fred. I couldn’t stop myself letting out a tiny whimper, which was thankfully concealed by the screaming, ranting and threats of Illyria. All that remained of the Old One were her terrifying bright blue eyes, burning with a fierce rage in the face that was otherwise Fred’s, that soon would be Fred’s again!

“And now,” Vail crowed, puffing himself up. “That your power has been drained, I will scour the last vestiges of your mind from that shell by restoring to it, it’s soul!” Illyria’s eyes, ears, nose and mouth exploded in bright white light illuminating the whole room like a miniature star. I shut my eyes, nearly blinded by the sheer intensity of that light. When the light had stopped illuminating my eyelids, I slowly opened my eyelids.

In the centre of the bubble, Fred floated. Her eyes, god I had missed those eyes, flicked around the room, like they were searching for something. Thankfully, she didn’t see me. Vail clenched one hand and thrust it towards the ground. Fred sank through the surface of the bubble, disgorged onto the floor. She struggled to stand for a half-second, gasping for breath, then crumpled into a heap. “Begone.” Vail thrust both hands forwards and the bubble of energy - reduced now to a tiny sphere of blue - seared bright red for an instant with terrible flame, before burning away into nothing.

Vail let out a booming laugh. “Behold, Dr Burkle! Gaze upon Cyrus Vail, sole surviving member and leader of the Black Thorn, slayer of Gods and—”  
I lunged towards him and released my flames, letting them race along the length of my sword as I swung it through his neck. “He-who-talked-too-much.” I snarled. 

Vail glanced at me. He looked startled. “Oh, crap.” He managed to get out before he toppled over, head falling backwards off his body, which in turn fell forwards onto the floor. I retracted my sword and turned to face her. 

“Fred?” I whispered. Please, please, please, please, please, please…  
“Wesley!” She cried and threw open her arms, and within a second I was wrapped in her arms and she was in mine. I was crying onto her shoulder as she gently stroked my back, whispering soothing words in my ear. 

“It’s okay, it’s okay.” She murmured. “Wesley, my Wesley, my love…”  
“Fred,” I choked. “I thought I lost you. Forever. I… I am so sorry I should have tried harder, I should have found a way to bring you back, I should have never let you die, I should have been better, I should have…”  
“Shh.” Fred hugged me tighter. “You’re with me. I’m with you. It’s gone. Illyria’s gone. It’s okay. I’m okay.”  
I kept crying into her shoulder and she gently rocked me, stroking me, whispering sweet words to me. I eventually stopped crying, wiped away my tears and looked directly into my eyes.

“Am I… am I dreaming?” I whispered. “Or dying? Or in heaven?”  
“No.” Fred whispered. “You’re alive and you’re with me.”  
“You’re the love of my life.” I told her. “I love you.”  
“I love you.” Fred replied, and for the first time I really saw the tears shining in her eyes, a counterpart to my own and I kissed her furiously. I kissed her like the world was ending and she kissed me back with equal passion, with quiet ferocity, with desperate need and when we broke away, we held each other wordlessly.

“Stop apologising.” Fred spoke first. “You did nothing wrong. I don’t want you to apologise. I love you.”  
“I love you.” I stroked her face and she smiled at me, and I had missed her smile too, and everything about her. “Where were you?”  
“I was up there.” Fred replied. “In… heaven, I suppose.”  
“What was it like? Are you okay?” I asked, suddenly terrified, remembering the stories of Buffy’s return from the afterlife.  
“It kind of sucked.” Fred kissed me on the cheek. “Didn’t have you. There were no science labs, no cases to solve, the coffee was terrible and did I mention you weren’t there?”  
I hugged her tighter against me, and she responded in turn, gripping me so tight I wondered for a moment if some of Illyria’s strength hadn’t remained. 

“I kept an eye on you.” Fred whispered. “Both eyes in fact… I am so sorry I touched that stupid coffin, if I hadn’t done that then… then you wouldn’t have had to grieve for me.”“I was just so lost.” I murmured. “I was so lost and there was no way out. I had no sunshine to light my way.”  
“I’m so proud of you.” Fred whispered. “You survived so much. You did so much good. And you built that Mutari Generator which, let’s face it, pretty awesome. Not as good as I would have built it…”  
I laughed out loud. “You’re right. You would have built it better. I did… bad things too…”  
Fred shook her head and smiled at me sadly. “Like what?”  
“I stabbed Gunn. I… I allowed myself to give in to the delusion that Illyria was you.”  
“He had it coming. Besides, you deliberately missed all the vital organs and arteries.”  
I let out a quiet chuckle at Fred parroting my own justification back at me.

“And as for Illyria…” Fred stroked my cheek. “You did that for my parents. And you held fast when it mattered. And now I’m here…”  
“I can’t believe you’re alive…” I confessed. “I think I must be dreaming.”  
“You’re not.” Fred murmured. “Turns out Demon Warlocks capable of bending reality can come in handy sometimes.”  
“Cyvus Vail to the rescue.” I said sarcastically, grinning.  
“Wesley Wyndam-Pryce to the rescue.” Fred corrected me.

We held each other for a few seconds longer. “We should probably get out of here.” I volunteered.  
“You’re right!” Fred replied. “Angel and the others might need us in that alley.”  
I unwrapped myself from Fred and got to my feet. I looked down at Fred. She frowned, planted both hands on the floor and visibly struggled. Sweat beaded on her forehead.

“Fred?” I asked softly. “Can you stand up?”  
“I…” Fred shook her head. “No.”  
“Let me help you.” I put my arm beneath her shoulders and helped her to her feet. She was weak and unsteady: I was supporting most of her weight.  
“I think some of your muscles may have atrophied.” I looked Fred in the eye. “Illyria used magic to move, not muscle.”  
“Stupid demon.” Fred muttered. “Okay, I’m fine. Let’s go. We can catch up to Angel.”  
“I’m not letting you anywhere near that fight.” I said calmly.  
“Wesley, don’t be an idiot.” Fred glowered at me. “I can help.”  
“Do you have a weapon?”Fred hesitated. “No.”  
“If I let go of you, would you be able to stand?”  
“…No.” Fred admitted glumly.  
“You’re not going near that fight.” I cupped her face in my other hand.

Fred burst out crying. “Don’t leave me.” She begged. “Don’t go out there to fight and leave me all alone! I want to be with you! I don’t want to leave again!”  
“Winifred Burkle,” I whispered. “I am never going to leave your side again.”  
“I… you won’t?” Fred said suspiciously. “You… won’t go to Angel?”  
“If he knew you were here.” I said gently. “He’d want me to get you to safety. You know he would. You deserve that.”  
“Then…” Fred bit her lip. “Where do we go? Last I saw from up high before I got pulled down here - happy to come, by the way - the Senior Partners were getting ready to let off some serious mojo.”

“Yes.” I stroked Fred’s hair. “My car is outside. Not a company car, thankfully. We’ll get in and start driving, in the opposite direction from the Hyperion. We’ll get out of the city. Then you can use my phone to call Willow or Buffy or someone, explain what happened and that we’re out of Wolfram & Hart. They’ll help us survive the initial blowback.”

“And then?” Fred asked, as I began slowly walking us towards the helpful exit Illyria had created for us.  
“Well. The two of us?” I smiled widely. “A Sorcerer and a Scientist?”  
“An Ex-God and a Rogue Demon Hunter?” Fred smiled back.  
“A former Watcher on a mission of redemption and a genius scientist, risen from the dead!” I crowed.  
“Two star-crossed lovers… at last reunited.” Fred pulled herself tighter against me.

“There’s a whole world to explore.” I smiled, as we emerged into the cool night air, just a few metres from my car.  
“Lots of evil to fight.” Fred responded.  
“Apocalypses to prevent.”  
“Friends to rescue.”  
“Lost time to make up for.”  
“Where do you want to start?” Fred smiled.

“The same place I want to be tomorrow, and in the middle and at the end and every moment in-between.” I bent down and kissed Fred. “With you.”

“My Wesley.” Fred whispered, wrapping her hand in mine.  
“Fred.” I murmured, rubbing my nose against hers.  
“Together… forever.” Fred stared at me with absolute determination in her eyes.  
“Forever.” And then in a moment of sudden inspiration, I sang the last words I’d heard before the happiness began to bleed from my world.

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine…” I sang to the love of my life.  
“You make me happy.” She sang back. We waited a second, to make sure that neither of us were going to be struck by lightning or fall through a portal, then we laughed, then we smiled and then we kissed.

And then we lived happily ever after.


End file.
